


of grumpy dads and the pet they said they didn't want

by mune_ga_hachikire_sude



Series: EC family fluff [1]
Category: Evillious Chronicles
Genre: Family Fluff, Gen, No Angst, and tired leondad being tired, honestly i wrote this for myself but i want to share it anyway so enjoy, the avadonia kids being kids
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2020-01-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:46:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22173520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mune_ga_hachikire_sude/pseuds/mune_ga_hachikire_sude
Summary: Germaine gets a puppy, and Leonhart isn't too happy with that. For now.
Series: EC family fluff [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1596070
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> we need more avadonia family fluff, is what i'm saying

“What’s that?”

“His name is Chappy!!”

It has been almost a year since Alexiel—he’s… Allen now— was adopted by the Captain of the Royal Guard, Leonhart Avadonia. Allen admits he had a somewhat rough start, it’s a bit difficult for a prince to adjust to normal life, and not to mention the political dispute that made him decide this path still sours his mood to this day.

But...Allen managed, and slowly, the small house downtown that isn’t even a fraction of the size of the palace he lived almost his entire life in...feels like home.

And his new family, well, they may not be perfect, but he’s grown fond of them all the same. No day feels uneventful or wasted with his stern yet clumsy father, and his tomboyish, energetic older sister.

_Especially_ his sister.

Almost every day, his foster older sister Germaine would always get into hijinks and trouble somehow, whether it’s beating up neighborhood boys for picking on her, or just general tomfoolery. Most days she drags Allen along with her, and most times he’d be exhausted by the end of the day trying to keep up with her, and always Leonhart will scold them when he gets home and find they didn’t do their chores and goofed around all day.

This day seems no different, Allen predicts.

Allen stares at his sister, then at the creature she’s holding, then back at his sister. Brown fur, floppy ears, a wagging tail. It’s a puppy. His sister is holding a puppy. Allen felt stupid asking what it is but he wasn’t sure what else to say when his sister suddenly came home with a puppy he’s never seen before in her arms.

“Why?”

“I’ve been pestering dad for a puppy for years. _Years_ , I tell you!” Germaine exclaims dramatically, petting the dog and as it wagged its tail. “But he never did get me one so I’m taking the matter into my own hands.”

He knew Germaine wanted a puppy, even before he became Allen Avadonia. In the palace he had heard Leonhart offhandedly mention Germaine begging for a puppy and the warrior father waving it off because a dog is way too much work to his friends. “The house feels empty when you go to work!” was one of the girl’s reasons. 

So, in a way, Germaine felt lonely...well, until Allen came for her to pester and play with.

(not that he minded, really.)

_Lonely...huh._ The former prince purses his lips, briefly wondering how his twin sister is doing at the palace, and hopes that she isn’t too lonely in the big palace full of grownups.

Allen asks Germaine how she even got the puppy, and apparently, the puppy is a stray who took a liking to the girl and started to follow her around. Germaine, who had always wanted a puppy, fell in love with it and decided to take it home with her.

“-So yeahh. Isn’t he cutee?” Germaine smiles as she let the dog down and let it explore the house. Allen frowns, feeling the need to point something out.

“Yes but, how would Sir Leonh- father,” That’s...still something he needs to get used to, if he’ll be honest. “How would father react to this?”

Germaine stops cooing at the dog and turns stiff. “I didn’t think about that!!” She panics, turning to Allen and lunging at him. “Please please **_please_ **don’t tell dad about this!!!” The girl frantically begs, shaking the boy by his shoulders. 

This girl is _strong_. Perhaps not as strong as the local blacksmith’s daughter, but pair it up with her seemingly unlimited supply of energy, and she’s definitely up there. “Okay, alright!” He gives in soon after he started feeling dizzy from all the shaking. 

The daughter of red gives a hearty grin and tackles her brother in a hug. “Thanks, Allen, you’re the best.”

Allen blinks, initially surprised, before he sighs, “Of course, sis.” 

“Hey, this is the first time you’ve called me ‘sis’!”

“...shut up.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> nevermind, this is a 3-chapter story. the third chapter will jut be a short epilogue though.

The moment he steps foot into his home, he can tell something is wrong.

Maybe his time during the war heightened his senses for these things, or maybe it’s just the “dad reflexes”, as everyone calls it, something he doubted was really a thing until he found out he can pull his impulsive daughter away from running onto the street before a carriage can run her over without batting an eye, or notice his son being oddly tired on certain mornings, then later finding out the boy’s been staying up late on certain nights, just to watch the moon, missing someone, hoping they’re looking at the same moon as he, perhaps.

(usually, he’d scold Allen for staying up so late, but the boy’s been through a lot, and the morning after those certain nights he makes sure his daughter doesn’t bother the boy so he could sleep for a few more hours)

As soon as the man in red armor closed the door, the damned thing creaking as it did, footsteps pitter-pattered from the other room, and immediately, he sees the familiar red dress of his daughter. “Welcome home, dad,” greets Germaine sweetly, smiling as she does.

His son follows after, his footsteps more calm and steady, “Welcome home, Sir Le-” the boy bites his tongue, realizing his mistake, “-Dad.”

Leonhart stared at his two children. Germaine’s smile was wide; a little too forced, he thought. Though Allen’s small smile looked more natural, his posture was awfully stiff.

Something was definitely wrong.

“Had something happen while I was gone?” 

The answer was quick. “Huh? No!” 

Before the man could say another word, something interrupts him— it sounded like...a bark? “What was that?”

The children’s faces pale. “I heard the neighbor adopted a puppy,” Allen pipes up. “A loud one, from what I remember, so we’re gonna hear it sometimes.”

That wasn’t very convincing. “Really, now,”

“Uh-huh.”

He stares down at his children, narrowing his eyes— glaring, almost. But instead of saying anything, the weary warrior heaves a sigh. He’s had a long day at work in the palace, and he simply didn’t have the energy to entertain the children’s charade for now. “Alright,” he says, taking off his cape as the Captain of the Royal Guard and putting it on a nearby rack, turning his back, momentarily distracted and failing to notice the brown puppy walking up to the children, much to their panic. “Have you done your chores?”

“Oh- oh, yes, L- father,” stammers Allen while he watches his sister make erratic gestures at him while quickly trying to grab and carry the puppy out of sight. 

“That’s good-” By the time Leonhart turns back to the kids, his daughter was gone. “Where had Germaine gone?”

Allen tries to think of something on the fly, “She remembered she left the stove on and went to turn it off.”

“Ah-”

A door creaks, before it is slammed closed. Both father and son look over at the noise, and sees someone none other than the daughter.

“Left the stove open...in your bedroom?” Leonhart raises a brow at his son.

“...maybe she left to turn off the stove and stopped by to get something in our room.”

“Okay, alright,” tired, Leonhart decides not to push on the issue further for now. “I’m hungry, let’s just eat dinner, yeah?”

Briefly relieved, both of his children nod.

-

It’s very late, some time after midnight, perhaps. The children were put to bed a while ago (and he made sure they actually slept), the skies are a dark blue color, the stars and the moon in its full glory, the sound of crickets adding to the quiet and serene atmosphere.

Yet he himself couldn’t go to bed.

Perhaps it’s because it was such a beautiful night. Leonhart thinks wryly as he props a chair next to an open window and downs hard liquor straight from the bottle. He briefly recoils from the strength of the alcohol, yet he continues gulping down the bitter drink, because nothing else could make him drown out his sorrows and his guilt, the ghosts of his past.

“It’s one of those nights, isn’t it?” He whispers, into the chilly air, to whom, he wonders? His sleeping children, a weary former prince of this country, and the clueless princess of his home country? His friends? Or maybe the ghosts of those he slain, the ghost of Germain, of the birth parents of the girl he now calls his daughter, of the civilians he killed-

Something interrupts his train of thought, just before he could spiral. A noise. He wasn’t sure what it was, so he takes a look around, cautious. What could it have been?

It turns out that he had been looking too high up, as the source of the noise had been panting in front of his legs all this time, a white cloth covering its body.

_“Explains the moving lump on Germaine’s bed earlier…”_ he thinks as he pulls the blanket off of the creature. “What are you? A ghost? Came here to take me to the Hellish Yard? Ha ha.” He’s tipsy, perhaps bordering on drunk, so maybe that’s why his unfunny joke is so funny to him right now.

The creature gives an enthusiastic bark, as if it agreed. Brown fur, waggy tail, and floppy ears. A puppy. It was a puppy.

“Germaine took you in, didn’t she?” Leonhart questions the canine, giving it a few pets which it thoroughly enjoyed. “What a stubborn girl...as always.” He mutters, a bit fondly, knowing full well that he had no one to blame but himself.

After petting the puppy for a few minutes, Leonhart sits back and continues drinking, expecting the dog to lose interest in him and walk back to his children’s room, or...something but-

It doesn’t. Instead, the puppy circles around his leg, and lays down next to his foot, just like that.

On these nights, Leonhart had always preferred to stay alone and drown his sorrows away in solitude, often pushing his daughter and son away on the off chance they woke up to see the pile of drunk mess that is their father. _I’m fine,_ he says to them, begging, almost, _it’s late. Go to bed._

He hadn’t considered that, maybe having a little company isn’t too bad.

“Feelin’ a little lonely, huh?” The puppy looks up and tilts its head curiously. The man could only laugh and reach down to pet the dog.

“...well, me too, buddy. Me too.”

-

The next morning, Germaine panics when she finds Chappy not on her bed, nor Allen’s, nor anywhere in their room even after she looked through every nook and cranny.

Allen says he found the door slightly open when he woke up earlier than she did— as he always did, and the girl pales. “What if Dad found him?” Germaine wonders, gloomy. “He’s going to kick Chappy out, or give him away, and we’ll get in trouble again, Allen. I’m sorry.”

The boy frowns, recalling their so-called ‘rescue’ of their friend in the forest. But before he could respond, a bark sounds throughout the house, briefly drowning out their father’s humming from the kitchen.

The brother and sister look at each other, wide-eyed, panic evident in their little faces as the same thought dawns on them. 

The bark sounds like it came from the kitchen.

Their father _is_ in the kitchen.

_Oh no._

Immediately, the girl runs to the kitchen, and her brother follows soon after. Maybe, just _maybe,_ their father hadn’t noticed Chappy yet, and if they were sneaky enough, perhaps they could drag him out without their father seeing. Maybe they could keep Chappy still. They _hope_.

“Morning. Help me set the table, you two,” grumbles their father as he set a plate of bread on the table, just a little hungover, but fine. The man looks up a few moments after apparent silence, and sees their almost gawking faces. He knows exactly why, yet he blinks and acts oblivious, because one thing he learned from being a father is that he is a damn good actor sometimes. “Oh? What’s gotten into you two?”

Germaine starts stammering, “But- but Chappy-”

“-is eating his breakfast already, and you should too.” Leonhart keeps a mental note that the dog’s name is Chappy. “Hey, what are you waiting for? C’mon, the food is getting cold.”

It takes the children a few seconds to snap out of their surprise. They look at each other, blinking, a mixture of relief and confusion on their faces, before one of them— the girl who’s known their father almost her entire life to know what he’s up to— runs up to the man, and tackles him into a hug, much to his outward annoyance.

He scolds her for startling him, but she could hear the smile in his otherwise annoyed words, and she, too, smiles.

Her dad doesn’t always have a verbal or direct way of communicating sometimes, she realized even back when she was smaller.

A pat on the head for _I’m proud of you_ , a hesitant pat on the back for _I’m not good at comforting you but just know I’m here for you and I love you_ , a pleading glare for _yes, Germaine, you can have a snack but please don’t empty the pantry again._

And she’s known him long enough to know that he’s saying, _alright, you can keep this dog._

And she’s never been happier.

Eventually, the clever boy catches on with the little charade between daughter and father, and he smiles, knowing all is okay.

“You kids aren’t hungry?” sighs their father, sitting down at the table after his daughter let go of him. “Because I am.”

Smiling, the children walk over to the table to join their father. During their meal, Leonhart instructs them on what to do and what not to do with the new family pet, what tricks to teach him and how to do it, what to feed the dog, and everything else they need to know about pet care.

“How come you know so much about dogs, dad?” Germaine asks with a mouthful of bread.

Leonhart...pauses, preferring not to think about the mutt he was forced to leave behind in his youth, and what became of it. The man sighs, and could merely shrug.

“It doesn’t matter.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have a headcanon that leonhart's brother's name is Germain, and that he named Germaine after him. so, yeah, "the ghost of Germain" as in the ghost of his brother, not the ghost of his daughter haha

**Author's Note:**

> this is a 2 shot as opposed to a 1 shot because i have not written a story for at least three years and my writing's very rusty at the moment, please bear with me.


End file.
